Irrelevant Thesis - Foothill College

The Fallacy of Irrelevant Thesis | Creation Science

This happens with almost every single question during a formal political debate. For example, at a televised debate between presidential candidates, the mediator might ask, "If you become president, what would you do about the rising unemployment numbers?" to which the candidate might reply, "I'm glad you asked, because unemployment is the greatest problem facing this nation yadda yadda yadda, and my opponent's plan to deal with the problem is completely insufficient." Notice, in this example, how the candidate dodged the question entirely. He made an argument, but it didn't answer the mediator's concerns and was thus an irrelevant thesis.

2.a is a generalised synopsis, that deliberately blocks the specifics on legality, the council failed to address, and clearly shows avoidance. This is impermissible, and shall have to be addressed first, BEFORE moving on to any irrelevant thesis and other fallacies that remain, at the end of the topic. IF the adjudicator is flexible on this and strict on hearing their argument before they rebut cogently the Appellant's, then they breach the spirit of CPR 16.5 and the adjudicator shall be scrutinised for 'not furthering the overriding objective' in the spirit of CPR 1.1-1.4.

Irrelevance. This fallacy has more names than just about anyother. The classical logicians called it ; itsmodern names include irrelevant thesis, ignoring the issue, red herring,irrelevant conclusion, diversion, and irrelevant proof. Sometimes whenan arguer cannot prove or disprove a particular point, he will simply shifthis discussion over to a point that he can prove or disprove, and thenimply that the original point has been treated. In one form of irrelevantproof, an arguer may attempt to prove something that has not even beendenied, such as a related or incidental fact:Note especially in this last example that the fallacy is very attractiveand often persuasive to the person employing it because it does prove apoint or state a true argument, and the point is often related to the issueat hand, sometimes even very closely. The husband here may actually havemore or less equated (or confused) material support with love, so thatto him the argument appears legitimate.

Irrelevant Thesis (Ignoration Elenchi)

Sometimes an arguer will oversimplify the original issue so that itis easily rebutted:Note that the supporting statements of both of these arguments are quitetrue. However, they are irrelevant because the proponents of the pollutioncontrol scheme and the ethics classes certainly would not claim such impossiblebenefits as mountain pure air or an end to crime.

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irrelevant thesis | Youth Apologetics Training

The name of this fallacy comes from the sport of fox hunting in which a dried, smoked herring, which is red in color, is dragged across the trail of the fox to throw the hounds off the scent. Thus, a "red herring" is one which distracts the audience from the issue in question through the introduction of some irrelevancy. This frequently occurs during debates when there is an at least implicit topic, yet it is easy to lose track of it. By extension, it applies to any argument in which the es are logically irrelevant to the .

Informal fallacy: Red Herring or Irrelevant Thesis

Note the use of focus and palliation in the management of “suppressio veri & suggestion falsi” The art of suppressing craftily what is adverse to one's case, and suggesting what is often false, to ones advantage financially, or irrelevant to reaching a valid conclusion. This section deals with Irrelevant Thesis, but in this argument there are overlays of several themes.

sometimes referred to as an irrelevant thesis.

In another form of this fallacy, a kind of presumptuous disproof, anarguer assumes that he has proved his own point merely by disproving thatof his opponent. The underlying questionable assumption here is that oneof the two positions must be correct, so that if one can be disproved,the other is established by default. In reality, both may be wrong entirelyor only partially right. If you assert that the sky is green and I assertthat it is yellow, I cannot prove my position correct by disproving yours.(Compare the fallacy of false dilemma.)Closely related to this last variety of irrelevance is a procedure in whichthe arguer disproves a small, part of an opponent'sargument and then goes on to conclude that the entire argument must necessarilybe invalid or disproved. And, of course, it is only one more step to assumethat his own position has thereby been established conclusively:At its most obvious and blatant, the fallacy of irrelevance is often labeledas a "red herring." A red herring is a dried, smoked herring used to distractfox hounds. The herring is dragged across the fox's path and the dogs areled astray by the much stronger scent of the fish. In argument an opponentcan be led astray when an arguer injects a word or statement which theopponent is certain to address because of its controversial nature. Inthis way the opponent is actually partly responsible for the shift fromthe issue (this is often what keeps arguments going). When an arguer seesthat his position is weak or insupportable, he will sometimes use a redherring to lead his opponent off onto something else to argue, even thoughthat something else is irrelevant to the original issue.A fallacy so closely related to irrelevance that it deserves mention hereis the fallacy of objections. This fallacy consists in showing that someposition, plan, or theory has objections to it, with the implication thatit therefore is false or should be rejected. But there are objections tonearly everything, so that is no disproof if the conclusion or proposalhas more forceful, positive grounds for it. As Samuel Johnson once noted,if people waited to do something until they had a good answer to everyobjection, nothing would ever be done.

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“ This is an argument whose conclusion is simply not relevant to its premise. Such fallacies include: The genetic fallacy The ad hominem fallacy Irrelevant thesis Straw-man Several types of faulty appeals ”

An Irrelevant Thesis | Professional Hackers For Hire

Fallacy of the Week – Fallacy of Irrelevant Thesis | Steel on Steel

Irrelevant thesis is an argument which purports to prove one thing instead proves a different conclusion.

Of course, involve irrelevance, in that the premisses are logically irrelevant to the conclusion, but this fact is disguised by language. However, Aristotle classifies Ignoratio Elenchi as language-independent, though he does say:

One might, with some violence, bring this fallacy into the group of fallacies dependent on language as well.